Video resources for technology and society

Abstract

Technology and society courses are offered at many colleges and universities in various forms and, often, by engineering departments. Developing and teaching courses dealing with the impact of technology on society can be enhanced by wise use of video resources. There is hardly an area of technology and society that is not the subject of study in some currently available film or video resource. In those courses whose major focus is the history of technology, videos or video series such as Ascent of Man, America, A&E Biography, The Secret Life of Machines, and Machine That Changed the World can enhance student learning. For courses dealing with the societal impact of technology, many episodes from the above are also useful. Additional help can be found in The American Experience, Living Planet, Blue Planet, The Pacific Century, Race to Save the Planet, Ken Burns' America, and A Walk Through the Twentieth Century. This paper explores many of these videos, emphasizing those materials that are useful to the professor in the classroom.